


Bleeding Heart

by DawnsEternalLight



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Animal Death, Blood, Bubble Bath, Damian is a good kid, Dick Grayson is a Good Brother, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, This is a sad with a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 18:01:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11879859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/pseuds/DawnsEternalLight
Summary: Dick finds Damian after sitting with a dying doe, and helps his brother both take care of the doe and himself.





	Bleeding Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I want to thank Komadoriwonder for inspiring this fic, Audreycritter for helping me plot it, and Laquilasse for drawing art that breaks my heart.

Damian’s first words to Dick when he found him were a defensive, “I didn’t do it.”

It made sense that those would be the words he chose, he was covered in blood after all. Covered in blood with a deer of all things, cradled in his lap. Well, it’s head at least. It was too big for Damian to have the entire thing in his lap.

“I didn’t think you did.” Dick said.

“Yes, you did.” Damian insisted, with a frown. His tone was hurt. “It was all but evident in your eyes when you walked up.”

“Dames.” Dick sighed.

He looked so small, and scared sitting on the outskirts of Wayne manor’s property with his hands, gently on the deer’s head, one hand curled around it’s ear. It wasn’t just his hands covered in blood, but his face, chest, and legs. It almost looked like he’d been dumped in a puddle of the stuff.

There were tracks through the blood on his cheeks, the kind that were only made by tears.

“I was surprised.” Dick told him. “The last thing I expected to do was find you out here covered in blood. Bruce said you two had a fight.”

“Tt. I came out to clear my head.”

Dick knelt down beside his brother. Closer he could tell one cheek had more blood on it than the other, like Damian had pressed his face against the deer, like he’d been comforting it. And of course he would have been, he wouldn’t be Damian if he hadn’t at least tried.

“What happened?” Dick asked, keeping his voice gentle.

“She was attacked, not on the grounds, somewhere off them. I found her limping in.” Damian’s voice was calculated as he said the words, like he was giving Dick a mission debrief.

“I’m sorry.” Dick took one of his brother’s hands from the cooling animal and cradled it in his own. “You’re cold. How long have you been sitting out here?”

“I wanted to give her proper time.” Damian said, then cleared his throat. “I may not have ended her life, but it was just as much my fault as anyone’s. I—I couldn’t save her Grayson.” His voice caught and his chest heaved for a second.

Dick thought the tears might start again, but whatever Damian had allowed to slip out in solitude seemed to be the extent of his grace towards himself. He swallowed back the tears and locked his eyes back on the animal. Dick gently pulled the deer’s head off his brother’s lap, and tugged the boy into his own.

“Let’s get you inside okay?” he said.

Damian shook his head, violently, and pushed at Dick’s chest. “No. I won’t leave her out here to be torn apart further.”

Dick could have told Damian that it was nature he was trying to fight, that the deer was going to decompose and become food for other organisms one way or another. The broken look on his brother’s face, and in his voice kept Dick from pointing it out. Damian was probably more aware then Dick himself was of the volatility and inevitability of nature.

“Alright,” Dick agreed. “What do you want to do with her?”

Damian pressed his lips together, and Dick knew what he was going to say before he said it. He sighed and pulled Damian back out of his lap before shrugging out of his own jacket.

“Put this on, I’ll get the shovels.”

By the time they were finished burying the doe Dick was dripping sweat and covered in dirt. Damian was even worse off than him, the blood on his skin either darkened as it dried, or caked on further by his insistence on pulling the doe himself into the grave.

He was exhausted when they finished, so exhausted that he didn’t put up an argument when Dick lifted him up and cradled him in his arms.

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” Dick said, hand pressed into Damian’s hair.

The boy was quiet, he’d been that way since they’d started digging, only speaking when necessary. Dick knew it had to do with something more than the animal. The doe had been the last straw for him, the final bit to break his carefully built dam on his emotions. When Dick had appeared, he’d thrown up a hasty one, but their hard work had eroded it down to something paper thin. Dick knew it was a matter of time before they’d be talking about it.

Either that or he’d be chasing Damian out into the woods again.

He had a fairly good idea of how to best get Damian to talk without him running, he was also sure Damian would not like it if he told him.

He carried his brother back into the manor, past a surprised Alfred, and curious Bruce, all the way up to Damian’s room. He set the boy on the counter in his bathroom and started a bath, pouring liberal amounts of bubble bath liquid into the water as it warmed. Alfred had stocked the room with it, but from the state of the bottle Dick was sure Damian had never used it.

It was testament to how upset Damian was that he let Dick strip him down almost bare. He swatted Dick’s hands away before he could finish and shivered in the chilly manor air.

Dick shrugged and rolled up his sleeves. “Have it your way.” He said, before lifting Damian and putting him into the tub.

Damian let out a surprised yelp and immediately splashed Dick with a face full of bubbles.

“I can bathe myself.” He snapped.

“All that blood is going to take a lot of work to clean off.” Dick said, ignoring Damian’s swatting hands as he found a large sponge and started scrubbing at one of his brother’s arms.

Damian gave up arguing after a few moments of grumbling that Dick ignored. Whether it was because of the warm water finally relaxing his tired muscles, or the comforting repetitive motions of the sponge scrubbing the blood off his skin he gave in to Dick’s attention.

A sniffle alerted Dick to the breaking of Damian’s emotional barrier.

“It’s okay.” He murmured, the sponge moving to Damian’s neck.

Damian’s sniffles turned into quiet sobs, and Dick set the sponge on the lip of the tub.

“Dames, you okay?” he asked.

Damian shook his head, sending water splashing across Dick and the tile around him.

“What’s wrong with me, Grayson?” he asked, lifting his hands out of the water, brownish liquid slipping past the still white bubbles cupped in his palms. “I shouldn’t be so upset. I should be fine, it was only a deer, Mother…I’ve seen much worse.”

Dick was well aware that he’d be soaked by the move, and he didn’t care. He reached forward and pulled his little brother into his arms, coating himself with bubbles and soapy water. He wanted hold Damian and let that hold erase every single moment of pain from his brother’s past. Every moment of helplessness, every second of death he’d seen.

Damian gripped his shirt, wet hand soaking Dick’s shirt the rest of the way through. “Father yelled at me today.” His voice was quiet, even in the room. “He was disappointed in me, he said I was never going to learn.” He said before pulling back.

If Dick had thought Damian had looked broken outside, seeing him soaking wet and shivering slightly in the water was worse.

“Bruce is an idiot.” Dick said, then at Damian’s shocked face he amended, “Sometimes. This time he was. He shouldn’t have yelled at you, I don’t care what happened.”

He cupped Damian’s cheek, the one he’d pressed against the dying doe’s side. “You are a good kid, more than that, you’re amazing, your actions outside today proved that. Your heart is so kind. There’s no weakness in that, and nothing of what Bruce might have accused you of.”

Damian pressed his lips together. He sniffed, and motioned towards the bubbles and sponge.

“No one’s ever done this for me before.” He said. “I mean, I’ve been bathed before, but never— I don’t deserve this.”

Dick pushed a dark wet curl away from his brother’s forehead.  “Of course, you do. I just told you how great you are. You know I love you, right, kiddo?”

His brother nodded. “I love you too, Grayson.”

Dick smiled brightly at that. “Those words are magic, I could just squeeze you close again.” He said.

“Don’t push your luck.” Damian eyed him. “I might be a ‘good kid’ but that will not stop me from taking your hand off if you coddle me too much.”

Dick laughed. “I get your point. Let me finish cleaning you up, there’s still some blood behind your ear.” He picked the sponge up and pressed it to the back of Damian’s head.

“How on earth did you get it here?” he asked, scrubbing just a little harder, the water pouring out of the sponge, turning rusty as it dripped down his neck.

“It’s not my fault.” Damian spluttered, attempting to push water out of his face. “Stop trying to drown me.”  

“Only if you promise to stay in tonight. I think we could both use a break.” He said.

Damian scowled. “This was a trap.” He said. “You didn’t care about making sure I was clean, you wanted to coerce me into a night of laziness. Well I refuse.” He crossed his arms, and did his best to look resolute while sitting in a bathtub filled with bubbles.  

Dick dipped the sponge in the water and held the soaked mass over Damian’s head. “Then I’m left with no choice.” He gave the sponge a light squeeze, letting some of the water rain onto Damian who swatted at it.

“Fine. Fine! You win. A night in it is.” Damian said.

Dick grinned at him. “Good.” He let the sponge drop into Damian’s hands. “I’ll let Bruce know he’s going out solo tonight, and get you some dry pajamas.”

“And ask Pennyworth to make some tea?” Damian asked.

“And I’ll ask Alfred to make some tea.” Dick confirmed.

“Thank you, Grayson.”

“No problem, Damian.” Dick said before reaching out once more to ruffle his baby brother’s wet hair.


End file.
